1. Field of the Invention
This invention broadly relates to garment making by use of garment patterns, and more specifically to a technique for precisely and individually sizing a garment pattern through the combination, arrangement and adjustment of specifically defined segments and portions of conventional pattern pieces.
2. Brief Introduction and Description of Prior Art
It is conventional practice to use garment fitting patterns in sewing garments. The garment fitting patterns are supplied in various selected overall sizes, for example, ranging from size 3 to size 60. The user selects the size that most generally fits or accommodates the whole of the person's body for whom the garment is intended. While the individual's overall stature is accommodated by a pattern of one size, certain major fitting and structural areas of the body may not be properly accommodated by the selected singlesize pattern. For example, the bust size and the waist size may not be in the proportion provided by a single pattern size. Furthermore, the posture of the individual influences the garment fit in certain portions of the figure. As a result, one or more fitting areas usually not accurately fitted by the garment formed from the pattern of one selected size.
Attempting to randomly alter a conventional singlesize pattern in one or more areas may create new or previously non-existing fitting problems in other areas, because the pattern outline as a whole is proportionally interrelated. Consequently, random alteration of one area can potentially adversely affect the fitting and sizing in another area. Another problem in attempting to alter a conventional garment pattern is that most users do not know the areas of the pattern to alter to achieve a specific fitting change, or the manner of altering the garment pattern to achieve a desired effect. Other than to accommodate the body of a person as a whole, conventional garment patterns do not consistently allow precise fitting in the major areas where structural, fitting and sizing problems typically occur and where special fitting is most commonly needed.
Conventional garment fitting patterns usually create a garment possessing only one overall fashion style or design, and a new pattern must be purchased to obtain each different fashion design. While one overall style might be appealing to some users, certain portions of a garment style may not be appealing or desirable to other users. The users may wish to use only the appealing portion of the design while discarding the remaining portion. Selective use of the design portions of various different patterns is not conveniently accomplished because some design features are not defined separately of the remaining portion of the garment pattern. Some users would experience significant difficulty in separating a given design portion from a conventional garment pattern, and most users would not be able to do so at all. Even if such separation could be conveniently accomplished, great difficulty would be experienced in determining how and where to combine the various randomly separated portions without adversely affecting the proportion, size, overall fit and design of the garment formed by the garment fitting pattern.
While this discussion generally introduces certain significant considerations applicable to the prior art, those limitations and considerations should become more apparent upon recognition of the substantial advantages, features and concepts involved in the present invention.